Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Fake newsletters slip by filters

A new technique being employed by malicious spammers is testing the ability of email filtering technologies to tell the difference between legitimate newsletter content and messages bearing unwanted advertisements and hidden links to malware sites. According to researchers at security software market leader Symantec, a new trend is rapidly emerging among bulk spammers where the creators of the annoying and often dangerous messages are <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2085777,00.asp?kc=EWNAVEMNL012207EOAD">disguising their work using real content</A> distributed in genuine electronic newsletters. By carefully recreating email newsletters and marketing materials sent to customers from well-known sources such as eBay, ESPN and Wal-Mart, spammers have found a new way to circumvent many filtering systems and sneak their work into users' in-boxes, said Doug Bowers, senior director of anti-abuse engineering at Symantec.

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